"Lie to Me"

Future used to be all about keeping you off-balance. Pluto was designed to be undefinable, flitting between guttural thuds (“Long Live the Pimp,” “Same Damn Time”), unhinged joy (“Straight Up”), naked desperation (“Turn on the Lights,” “You Deserve It”), and something entirely foreign (“Parachute,” “Magic,” “Permanent Scar”). When it came time to drop the deluxe version, Future shuffled the tracklist again, just to keep us guessing. Honest, Monster, Beast Mode, 56 Nights, and Dirty Sprite 2 are the same schizophrenia on a macro scale. So what happens when he strings us along on a record for 25 minutes, waiting for one big payoff?

“Lie to Me” is what happens. EVOL, which Future dropped last week as part of a deal with Apple Music, quickly settles into a rhythm—perhaps too easily. While songs like “Lil Haiti Baby” and “In Her Mouth” are potent in isolation, the record’s first seven songs more or less meld into one another, all hi-hats and Xanax. But suddenly, synths: “Lie to Me” is from the end of a movie (but not FBG: The Movie). In fact, in more ways than one, it feels like a throwback to Pluto with its syrupy maximalism and cackling optimism. Where half of Purple Reign and much of EVOL see the Atlantan curt and closed off, this is the greatest Future: vindictive, grateful, sensitive. The current run of mixtapes may be tapping into his reserves, but at his best, he’s still rap’s foremost stylist, and perhaps its most painfully honest artist.